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The more active a mother is, the more physically active her child will be, suggests a UK study of 500 mums and four-year-olds.

Researchers from Cambridge and Southampton universities used heart-rate monitors to measure activity levels over seven days.

Children are not ‘just naturally active’, it concluded, and parents have an important role to play in developing healthy exercise habits early on in life.

As part of the study, 554 four-year-olds and their mothers from Southampton wore a lightweight combined heart-rate monitor and accelerometer on their chests, for up to seven days.

Kathryn Hesketh, now a research associate at the Institute of Child Health at University College London, co-led the study and said the data from mothers and children showed a direct, positive association between physical activity in children and their mothers.

She said that for every minute of moderate-to-vigorous activity a mother engaged in, her child was more likely to engage in 10% more of the same level of activity.

Meanwhile, news from Down Under reveals that six out of ten die people from cancer or cardiovascular disease in Australia.

However, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are also taking an increasing toll on Australians, according to the latest Bureau of Statistics cause-of-death figures.

Dr Austin Hunt a consultant in acute medicine and renal failure at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, Devon has admitted serving his family animal carcasses found on the roadside into tasty, nutritious dishes including tenderloin of wild venison and badger balti.